Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Machanka
A rich pork and sour-cream gravy for dunking soft potato pancakes, a filling Belarusian country dish.
Belarusian · medium · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 45 min
~981 cal · 26g protein · 101g carbs · 52g fat · 13g fiber · 10g sugars · 25g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Machanka is a classic of Belarusian country cooking, a rich, savoury pork gravy whose name comes from the verb to dunk, machat. It is designed to be a communal, sociable dish: a pot of gravy set down for everyone to dip into.
Chunks of pork and smoked sausage are stewed with onion into a thick gravy loosened with broth and enriched with sour cream and a little flour. The traditional partner is soft blini or potato pancakes (draniki), torn and dredged through the gravy. Warming, filling, and deeply rustic, it is Belarusian comfort at its most generous.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally nut-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1 lb pork shoulder and smoked sausage, cubed
2 onion, chopped
2 tbsp flour
1 cup sour cream
12 potato pancakes or blini, to serve
1 bay leaf
Instructions
1
Brown the pork and sausage with the onion in a pot.
2
Stir in the flour, then add broth and the bay leaf and simmer into a thick gravy.
3
Stir in the sour cream and warm through without boiling.
✎ Chef’s note
Keep it below a boil once the sour cream is in, so the gravy stays smooth and does not split.
4
Serve the gravy in a bowl with warm potato pancakes for dunking.
Belarusian country cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Minsk. Draniki means shredded, and the claim to have invented them is weaker than the affection for them: the first printed mention is from 1830 and the dish sits in a family with German kartoffelpuffer, Ukrainian deruny and Jewish latkes. What is not in dispute is the enthusiasm.
🗺️
Belarus. Draniki simply means shredded, and the country puts more potato per head into its cooking than almost anywhere, on the order of a hundred and sixty kilos a year, with several hundred potato dishes recorded. The pancakes are fried until lacy at the edges and eaten with soured cream, and often with pork crackling.
🌍
Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Belarus
DranikiCrisp-edged potato pancakes fried golden and served with a generous spoon of sour cream.
Manna KashaSmooth semolina milk porridge, lump-free and lightly sweet, topped with jam or butter.
KulagaA thick, warm berry and rye porridge sweetened to a jammy pudding, an old Belarusian forest-berry dessert.
Browse all Belarus recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Best fresh and hot. Keep batter covered in the fridge for up to a day, and rewarm cooked ones in a dry pan.
Make it a Belarus meal
KulagaDessert
DranikiDinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Machanka?
A rich pork and sour-cream gravy for dunking soft potato pancakes, a filling Belarusian country dish.
Where does Machanka come from?
Machanka is a Belarusian dish from Minsk, Belarus.
Can Machanka be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Machanka recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Machanka safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Machanka take to make?
About 70 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 45 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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